BrandlandUSA In the News

Cincinnati Business Journal interviewed BrandlandUSA in an August feature on Christian Moerlein beer and Rookwood Pottery brands. The Wall Street Journal online on April 18, 2012 discusses the idea of reviving dead brands and their usefulness for the small entrepreneur. See Old Brands Get a Second Shot. The November 2010 Smart Money features a story by Anne Kadet on orphan brands, and mentions BrandlandUSA. QSR, for quick service restaurants, used our advice on branding in the event of a bankruptcy in the October 2010 article Back from Bankruptcy.
Some of our posts appear on the site Seeking Alpha. Sacramento Bee mentioned us for our search for
Sea & Ski
Read our commentary in Richmond's Style Weekly on the future of (the late) Circuit City at
Advice for Circuit City. See a Toledo Blade Story on the future of a historic White Tower restaurant. Read Editor Garland Pollard's personal writing clips online at www.garlandpollard.com.

Where’s Tropic-Ana? Bring Her Back

By Garland Pollard

BRADENTON – We grew up and were always pals with Tropic-Ana. She not only graced the packages of Tropicana, but she was on the outside of the bright orange CSX freight trains that ran from Palmetto/Bradenton Florida to packaging plants up north.

Yes, she was topless, but somehow it was covered over by a nice sort of necklace that always stayed positioned PERFECTLY.

She was gradually phased out, somewhere in the 1990s, though the date is uncertain. She does appear in the Tropicana online company history. Today, the Pepsi-owned brand is best known for an orange with a straw coming out of it.

We read from the Under Consideration design blog that Tropicana is redoing their packaging again. It is fairly handsome, but minimalist. Not too bad, but we really want Tropic-Ana back.

Ana did return for a time for the company’s 50th anniversary in 2003. Pepsi launched a contest to find the “next” Tropic-Ana, and also issued a 50th anniversary carafe featuring Tropic-Ana. According to a 2003 press release, Tropic-Ana was based on Chrissie Kesten Pool, who modeled for the drawing and played the role of mascot.

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6 responses so far ↓

My grandmother, Jane Beckley Burt, was the original artist of Tropic Anna. Her compensation? A firm handshake and a pat on the back. No wonder artists are starving.

I would hope that the reason the logo was pulled was not out of political correctness because she was “topless;” Tropic Anna was merely a cartoon based on a 3-year-old girl who was a neighborhood friend of my father. It would be great to see my grandmother’s work back on Tropicana packaging.

I’d like to see Tropic-Anna back, too. It was a great logo and one that was creative. I love the drawing and happen to be related to the Kesten family through Chrissie’s mother.Thanks for the information about your mother and about Tropic-Anna.
Maurla
Maurla

Tropic-Ana was designed by Ed Winarski who was a graphic artist for Owens-Illinois Co. in Glassboro,NJ. Owens made the bottles for Tropicana, as well as other Florida juice producers.Ed was sent to Florida for three weeks in the early 1950’s to help help with advertising , and packaging. He drew Tropic-ana based on a neighbors child in Barnsboro,NJ named Vicci Schmidt.